Fifty Shades of Grey Sparks Hell Fire, Brimstone From Catholic Church

Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson are breaking box office records in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey, but the Catholic church is condemning the film.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” has its critics, but none are quite as vociferous as the Catholic Church. An Archbishop has sentenced the film to eternal damnation in a hail of fire and brimstone. Will the Vatican weigh-in as well?

Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson are blowing past critics on their way to a likely box office record for an opening weekend.

The film raked in $30.2 million when it debuted on Friday (Feb. 13) and is expected to top $75 million over its opening three-day weekend, according to Hollywood trade rag Variety.

That should easily eclipse the previous Valentine’s Day weekend haul of $63.1 million for Garry Marshall’s 2010 film “Valentine’s Day.”

The Universal movie is also setting another record. It’s the biggest box office winner with the worst rating ever on rottentomatoes, which tracks reviews. The film has only scored a 26 percent rating, which means critics are almost universally panning it.

“We need to inform our people about the destructive message of this movie and to highlight the beauty of God’s design for loving relationships between a husband and wife in the bond of marriage,” he said.

Baptists are up in arms, too. Ed Young, pastor of the Fellowship Church in Dallas, Tx, also says E.L. James’ novel is a “perverted attempt to trap readers, according to The Christian Post newspaper.

Someone should remind him of the Catholic Church’s history of self-flagellation. It remains popular in the Philippines, Mexico, and parts of Peru, according to a popular history of the practice.

Anti-porn and women’s rights groups have also condemned the film. LifeSiteNews, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the Family Research Council and the website CounterCultured, released a joint statement, saying the film promotes misogyny, abuse and manipulation.

So far, however, the Vatican has yet to weigh-in on the film. Pope Francis, who was elevated in 2013, has been trying to present a more tolerant, less confrontational view of the church.

Under previous Popes, the Vatican newspaper routinely condemned films it considered anti-Catholic, such as Tom Hanks’s “Da Vinci Code.”

Let us know your thoughts and be sure to follow IM on Twitter for the latest movie news.

About The Author

TheImproper Staff

Keith Girard is Editor and Publisher of TheImproper, New York City’s cutting edge arts, entertainment pop culture and lifestyle Web magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine and a reporter for the Washington Post among other media positions.